💡 A Year of Writing: Hitting 7-Figures as a Freelancer, Writing 1.5 Books, & Traveling for 3+ Months

What I've learned in 12 months of working in the book world as an author, freelancer, and Substacker.

still dreaming of all the hong kong milk tea I had here

Hey writers,

I’m writing this year in review at 6:30 a.m. on a Monday, even though I’ve been up since 4:30 — not because I needed to be, but because I was too excited to stay asleep. I didn’t set an alarm. I don’t have a looming deadline. I’ve just been feeling that quiet, giddy pull toward my desk that’s defined this entire year.

That’s really been the theme of 2025: waking up before sunrise because I can’t wait to get to work. Rolling out of bed energized instead of exhausted. Showing up for myself long before the city wakes up. (Also, let’s please assemble a formal petition to finally abolish daylight savings — I can’t deal with this darkness-at-5pm nonsense.)

And the year itself? Full of surprises — the good kind and the “really?” kind — but somehow still the most aligned I’ve ever felt. I knocked out my entire vision board within six months, then had to build a new one with goals big enough to intimidate my future self.

This post is part reflection, part playbook. A behind-the-scenes download from a seven-figure freelance writer, bestselling author, and former digital nomad who finally attempted staying in one place — sort of.

Let’s get into it.

🌵 January: Desert Sprints & Moving Prep

January came in hot — and not just because I fled to Arizona for a warmer winter. It was one of the heaviest lifts of my entire year. I kicked off 2025 by landing a stack of new client projects on top of my already-packed roster, which meant my calendar looked like it was trying to sprint a marathon.

And in the middle of all that? I was wrestling with The Ash Trials, my debut romantasy novel, and getting pummeled by imposter syndrome on every draft. Nothing like writing magical chaos while living your own very mortal version.

So I spent the month in the desert, juggling deadlines and self-doubt while prepping for the move to San Francisco with Kyle — a logistical saga that deserved its own novella.

January didn’t play, but neither did I.

🌁 February: Moving to San Francisco, Publishing The Ash Trials, RomantasyCon Magic

RomantasyCon & Kyle's Birthday!

I arrived in San Francisco just in time for what felt like the rainiest weeks in recorded human history. While Kyle and I were trying to figure out where we were going to live, we basically spent two weeks trudging through rain, wind, and vibes best described as “perpetually damp.” At one point I got food poisoning from a restaurant I used to love (RIP, never again), and the whole moving process had me questioning whether I was meant to live inside a cardboard box.

But — plot twist — we finally found our dream home. A real, actual place to live. With heat. And walls. And light that wasn’t from a streetlamp bouncing off flooded pavement.

Meanwhile, I was sprinting toward launch day for The Ash Trials, wrapping edits, prepping marketing, and juggling one of my biggest client workloads ever. It was chaos, but the electric kind.

And right in the middle of it? RomantasyCon. Midnight balls. Sparkly costumes. Readers and writers who love this genre with their whole hearts. It was a fever dream in the best possible way.

Publishing The Ash Trials on Valentine’s Day was both terrifying and wildly rewarding. This was my debut novel — the thing I was afraid no one would like — and then the early reader messages started rolling in. Love letters. Glowing reviews. Entire book clubs picking it up. I felt like someone had replaced my fear with a current of pure joy.

Thank you to everyone who read it, recommended it, or slid into my inbox with chaotic-fangirl energy. And yes — the sequel is in the works. It’s happening. I promise.

📚 March: Getting Settled into San Francisco

quick roadtrip side quest after moving in

I genuinely forgot how brutal moving is. I hadn’t lived anywhere permanently since 2021 when I was in LA, and between then and now I’d been living the digital nomad life — which is glamorous right up until you realize you own… nothing. No couch. No plates. No real winter coat. Just vibes and a laptop.

Since I sold everything when I left LA, Kyle and I had to rebuild our entire domestic ecosystem from scratch. It was a lot, but it was also fun because we got to choose all our new favorite things together. We even made a pilgrimage to the Restoration Hardware showroom in SF — which, by the way, looks like a Greek palace run by minimalists with trust funds — to pick out the exact white Cloud Couch we’d put on our vision board.

Somewhere in the middle of assembling a new life, we took a quick trip to Carmel with family. We hadn’t even finished unpacking, so half our stuff was still living out of boxes while we were living out of suitcases again.

March was basically: build a home, buy a life, and take a road trip anyway.

⚡️ April: Exploring San Francisco and Keeping Up with Client Work

acquired many new plants!

April felt like someone hit the “fast-forward” button on my life and then walked away. New clients kept rolling in, and I had to run my schedule like a battlefield. I was taking calls in my half-built office, propping my laptop on a wobbly cardboard box in front of the bay windows like it was some kind of avant-garde standing desk.

The projects kept getting bigger, which meant my days were split between onboarding clients, choosing furniture, going to events across the city, attempting consistent workouts, and trying to convince our kitchen to become functional instead of decorative.

It was all happening at once — thrilling, chaotic, and a little bit deranged.

Meanwhile, ✍️ Make Writing Your Job was exploding. Growth was wild. I was still putting together every single issue of the writing job board myself while Kyle and I tag-teamed the marketing. Kyle, in his infinite wisdom, pointed out that I was doing way too much and should hire a team.

He was right, of course — but we didn’t actually make the hires until June. Classic.

🇮🇹 May: Copenhagen Curiosity & Tuscan Creativity Retreat

Late April into early May kicked off another round of travel — first to Copenhagen, where I wandered through design museums and bakeries like someone auditioning for a minimalist Scandinavian reboot of my life. From there, I flew straight into the Tuscan countryside for

Emma Gannon

’s creativity retreat, which felt like stepping into a postcard someone forgot to Photoshop.

It was a magical stretch of time. Long conversations with brilliant writers. Slow mornings. Big ideas. Energy healers banishing ghosts. And honestly, it arrived right when I needed it most. I’d been skating dangerously close to burnout, and Tuscany nudged me back from the edge.

While I was there, I made a promise to myself: the rest of the year would be about getting serious about my health routines once more. I started easing into strength training 3–4 times a week, walking 10,000 steps a day, and slowly breaking up with bread and sugar. These habits didn’t lock in overnight, but once I got back to San Francisco, the rhythm finally started to click.

I actually wrote a whole piece about the health and fitness routines that have helped me as a writer — you can read it here.

💐 June: Birthday Month and Digging Into Write for Money and Power

June arrived with birthday energy and a whole new era for ✍️ Make Writing Your Job.

We officially brought on our team of curators, and together we started building the early versions of the systems that now let us source hundreds of high-paying freelance writing jobs, grants, residencies, contests, and pitch calls every single week.

Kyle — a lowkey systems genius — engineered some brilliant frameworks to support the team, and I put on my hiring hat to find the right people who could help us keep scaling without setting ourselves on fire.

June was the month the job board stopped being a two-person sprint and started becoming a real operation. It felt like leveling up — both for the business and for me.

📆 July: Backstreet Boys at the Sphere, Spending Time with Family, Prep for Write for Money and Power Publicity and Marketing

I spent some time with family before meeting up with Kyle in Vegas to see Backstreet Boys in the Sphere. It was a blast, but at the end of the show I very seriously leaned over to Kyle and was like “Why didn’t they play Bye Bye Bye?” Wrong early 2000s boy band, apparently.

I also dug into work with book marketer

Renee Puvvada

and PR specialist

Haley Raymond

for the launch of my book Write for Money and Power.

Renee and Haley are pros who have done amazing things for the launch so far, and I interviewed them both on Substack Live if you want to get to know them and their strategies below:

✍️ PR for Self-Published Authors: A Conversation with Haley Raymond and Amy Suto

📚 How to Make Six-Figures Self-Publishing Books: A Conversation with Book Marketer Renee Puvvada

🌪️ August: Work Vortex, Outside Lands, Hiring

August was one long, swirling work vortex — the kind where you look up and somehow it’s three weeks later and you’re still holding the same half-empty coffee. We were hiring freelancers left and right as our team kept expanding, and my calendar turned into a dystopian art piece: I had something like fifty-two meetings. In one month. My calendar still hasn’t recovered.

At the same time, I was deep in client manuscripts, shaping chapters, reviewing drafts, and doing everything in my power to help these books come alive.

But the highlight? Outside Lands. I finally got to see my favorite band on the planet, Glass Animals, and for one glorious night I was not in a work vortex — I was just a person in a crowd, screaming lyrics and remembering what joy feels like at maximum volume.

August was busy, messy, electric — and very, very full.

📚 September: Finishing Write for Money and Power, Hiring New Team Members

September was the month everything clicked into place — and also the month everything felt like a struggle. I was wrapping Write for Money and Power after getting feedback from more than ninety beta readers, whose insights reshaped the book into what it is now. Their comments were gold, chaos, and clarity — sometimes all at once — but they pushed the book exactly where it needed to go.

I finished the final draft just in time for our month-long trip to China and the kickoff of the ARC campaign. Nothing like hitting “send” on a manuscript and immediately sprinting onto a long-haul flight.

And look — the last ten percent of a book is agony. Every time I get to the end of a manuscript, I ask myself, “Why do I willingly do this?” Then I finish it, celebrate, feel the rush, and immediately start plotting the next one.

So is the glorious yet Sisyphean life of a writer.

🇨🇳 October: Month-Long Trip to China

Kyle Cords

planned an incredible trip through China and Hong Kong for us (read about his insights on his FounderCore Substack here!)

I wrote travel blogs on all the cities we visited (Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Shenzhen) and it was both a dreamy and fascinating trip.

I also was able to be nearly completely offline, and our Substack community at ✍️ Make Writing Your Job hit $166,000 in ARR a few weeks into the trip, showing that the systems we had put into place were working. You can read more of my reflections about growing a six-figure Substack here.

✈️ November: Traveling to Hong Kong, Hawaii, and then Back to San Francisco, Press Begins for Write for Money and Power

We finished up our 6-week trip with Hong Kong and then Maui, and I returned to San Francisco just as podcast interviews and press started for Write for Money and Power.

I’m not going to lie, it’s been tough battling jet lag and making it to 7am podcast interviews and my daily workouts and walks. I’m also working with three of my clients who are wrapping up and publishing their books in the coming months, some of whom I’m helping with their ARC campaign and self-publishing book marketing.

But I feel a deep sense of satisfaction. I’ve hit some of the highest highs in my writing career this year, and I wouldn’t do anything differently.

✨ Looking Ahead to 2026: Write for Money and Power Book Launch, Getting Even Healthier, and (Of Course!) More Writing

kyle & I on the ferry in HK ❤️

In 2026, I have lots to look forward to. My book Write for Money and Power is out January 12, 2026. Several of my clients also have books coming out in 2026. I plan on doing lots of writing (per usual!)

On a personal level, I’m excited to share that I’ve been in remission from my autoimmune condition for over two years (!!!). I’m celebrating by setting more health and fitness goals, taking more dance classes, and enjoying the life I’m building here in San Francisco with Kyle. ❤️

I’m also dabbling with the idea of doing events, meetups, and building out more of a creative community here in SF. TBD on that — as an introvert I’m trying to find the best way to spend my energy while still connecting with other amazing writers. (BTW if you find yourself in SF, let me know!)

Here’s to an amazing 2026 filled with lovely writing vibes,

-Amy

P.S. Are you looking to have your memoir ghostwritten in 2026? Or, are you an author of a novel, nonfiction book, or memoir looking for a developmental editor? Hit reply on this email and let’s hop on a free discovery call to chat. If I’m not the right fit for you, I can also help you find the right writer or editor for you from our community over at ✍️ Make Writing Your Job.